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-   -   Here it comes: Syria (https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/513470-here-comes-syria.html)

ShotOne 10th Apr 2017 17:07

" ..linking automatically to a single party..."yes, agreed, but in this case the very strong balance of probability is these cw were deployed by the regime.

racedo 10th Apr 2017 17:18


Originally Posted by Herod (Post 9734378)
Isn't it just possible that the intelligence services know considerably more than they are putting in the public domain, for us to argue over?


This the same intelligence services that took 10 years to find Osama and told everybody about WMD's in Iraq......................... their record on anything is so bad that it is laughable.

West Coast 10th Apr 2017 18:14

Racedo

You have enough information to make that claim? Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question. You look foolish to draw conclusions on everything they do. Makes identifying the drama queens easy enough though.

Doctor Cruces 10th Apr 2017 18:33

Someone needs to discover oil in Syria. We'd sort it out quick enough then.

TEEEJ 10th Apr 2017 18:44


Originally Posted by DroneDog (Post 9735075)
Did the west not intervene and remove all the chemical weapons from Assad's forces.

The OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) had reservations in regards to what Syria declared. Keep in mind that Gaddafi retained a secret cache of chemical weapons that were discovered after he was toppled.


OPCW Pressing Syria on Declaration Gaps

April 2016

By Daniel Horner

Hamid Ali Rao, deputy director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (left) and OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü (right) during the annual meeting of the states-parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague on December 3, 2015. (Photo: OPCW)Hamid Ali Rao, deputy director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (left) and OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü (right) during the annual meeting of the states-parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague on December 3, 2015. (Photo: OPCW)The policymaking body of the international organization that oversaw the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons expressed concern last month about problems with Syria’s formal accounting of its chemical stockpile and urged resolution of the problems in the next few months.

In a March 23 decision document, the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) cited a report to the council by OPCW Director-General Ahmet Üzümcü. The report has not been publicly released, but the council document described it as saying that the OPCW Technical Secretariat “is unable at present to verify fully that the declaration and related submissions of the Syrian Arab Republic are accurate and complete.”

Countries are required to submit a declaration of their stockpiles when they join the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria did in 2013. Questions about the declaration emerged almost immediately and have persisted since then.

At a meeting in Washington last month, a U.S. official said the council action and the request for the Üzümcü report on which the decision was based were part of a U.S. initiative stemming from a feeling that the issue required higher-level political attention. Under the resolution, Üzümcü is to meet with Syrian officials and report back to the council before its next meeting, scheduled for July 12-15.

Üzümcü’s meetings are to proceed in parallel with those of an OPCW unit known as the Declaration Assessment Team, which has had primary responsibility for probing the Syrian accounting and had made 15 visits to the country as of late March.

In a March 15 statement to the council on behalf of the European Union, Pieter van Donkersgoed of the Netherlands said the list of unresolved questions “has been increasing during the last two years and is still growing.” Among the issues he cited as examples were “the fate of the 2000 aerial bombs [designed to carry chemical agents] that Syria claims to have converted” into conventional weapons and the discovery by the Declaration Assessment Team of “traces of chemicals directly linked” to the production of the nerve agents sarin, VX, and soman.
https://www.armscontrol.org/print/7379

racedo 10th Apr 2017 18:51


Originally Posted by West Coast (Post 9735224)
Racedo

You have enough information to make that claim? Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question. You look foolish to draw conclusions on everything they do. Makes identifying the drama queens easy enough though.


14 years on from Iraq invasion yup reckon I do................

Finding Osama 10 years after 9/11 yup reckon that info is well and truly proven.

Course if you wish to disprove that and show how Intelligence agencies had that information all the time but just kept it from Governments then go ahead.


So should we trust the CIA in they stating that the Russians turned the US Presidential election to elect current incumbent or should we rely on other US Intelligence networks which have said that didn't happen.

West Coast 11th Apr 2017 01:54

Racedo

Your comment, "record on anything " marks you as a lightweight. If you're willing to condemn them in totality, then that infers you have the data to do so, which armed with media reports means you dont.

There are posters here that earn my respect by offering salient, adult like positions. You're not one of them as you choose to offer sweeping positions when you're clueless to the entirety of the subject you mention.

How do you know the positions the CIA held internally about all the major positions of the past 15 years? I can imagine there was robust discussions and position/point papers in varying directions as to Iraq and Afghanistan.

jolihokistix 11th Apr 2017 03:06

A few of years ago a huge underground bunker of Saddam-era chemical weapons was discovered in Iraq. It was so heavily sealed however that the temporary occupying fighters seemed at the time unlikely to have been able to open it. My memory is hazy regarding the where and when.

engineer(retard) 11th Apr 2017 06:36


Originally Posted by racedo (Post 9735167)
This the same intelligence services that took 10 years to find Osama and told everybody about WMD's in Iraq......................... their record on anything is so bad that it is laughable.

The UN was convinced that there were weapons, in fact they verified the existence of thousands of biological and chemical weapons in Iraq:

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2002...aqspecialoct02

It always surprises me that nobody wonders where the unaccounted ones went.

Roland Pulfrew 11th Apr 2017 10:52

Googling "Saddam era chemical weapons bunker captured by ISIS" brings up numerous reports from 2014; this one the Torygraph

Lonewolf_50 11th Apr 2017 11:24


Originally Posted by Doctor Cruces (Post 9735244)
Someone needs to discover oil in Syria. We'd sort it out quick enough then.

Suggest you do a bit of self education, sir.
https://gailtheactuary.files.wordpre...mption-eia.png

There is oil in Syria, however, not quite in the over abundance one finds in Iraq or Saudi. The line on the map from Sikes Picot didn't quite settle over the sweet spots for that particular country.

DroneDog 11th Apr 2017 11:25

Someone needs to discover the plans for a proposed gas pipeline through Syria that Assad had refused.

Lonewolf_50 11th Apr 2017 11:27


Originally Posted by DroneDog (Post 9736195)
Someone needs to discover the plans for a proposed gas pipeline through Syria that Assad had refused.

Heh, I suspect that those plans are sitting in an air-conditioned office in Riyadh, Doha, or both. :ok:

jolihokistix 11th Apr 2017 13:08

Roland Pulfrew above, many thanks.

Trim Stab 11th Apr 2017 13:19


Originally Posted by West Coast (Post 9735224)
Racedo

You have enough information to make that claim? Don't worry, it's a rhetorical question. You look foolish to draw conclusions on everything they do. Makes identifying the drama queens easy enough though.

There is a valid reason to question most information from the intelligence services in this day and age.

During the Cold War, and to a lesser extent during other UK-oriented conflicts such as NI and Falklands, intelligence was sourced from informants with a genuine ideological abhorrence of the antagonist.

Modern day informants are almost universally venal - they just provide information that will maximise their personal revenue. Hence I too have a very disdainful regard for the intelligence provided by our intelligence services today.

A_Van 11th Apr 2017 15:53

Lonewolf 50 is right, as usual: pipeline was among sources of trouble as many analysts say. Even RFK Jr is among them
Syria Is Another Pipeline War


Was it a major reason, or just one among many, difficult to say. But coincidently, when Assad sent Qatar and Turkey to hell and started dancing with Iran, Qatar and Saudis started warming/boiling and supporting everybody who might be considered as an opposition to Assad Jr.

Hangarshuffle 11th Apr 2017 22:43

UK Government cant seem to hold it together on the issue.
Boris Johnson insists Russia could still face sanctions as Government colleagues criticise 'total let down' at G7 summit

Our Foreign sec. clearly the odd one out at G7 and looking increasingly isolated within the cabinet as well.
I actually don't think sanctions are the answer either. Distinct credibility gaps are apparent everywhere within our side. The credibility of US and UK Govts. their intelligence services...everything really. It all utterly stinks.

ORAC 27th Jun 2017 05:32

US warns Syria over 'potential' plan for chemical attack - BBC News

The US says it has identified "potential preparations" for another chemical attack in Syria, and issued a stark warning to the Syrian government. The White House said the activities were similar to those made before a suspected chemical attack in April........

The US statement warned President Bashar al-Assad of "a heavy price" if another strike occurred. It said "another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime" was likely to result "in the mass murder of civilians".

The statement added: "As we have previously stated, the United States is in Syria to eliminate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. If, however, Mr Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price.".......

Heathrow Harry 27th Jun 2017 08:56

Van

I think you've forgotten there was pipeline through the area for many years - the old TAP line. And it was bedevilled by politics even then - every time Syria wanted some more cash a "farmer" would "accidently" drive a bulldozer through it.............................

Construction of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline began in 1947 and was mainly managed by the American company Bechtel. Originally the Tapline was intended to terminate in Haifa which was then in the British Mandate of Palestine, but due to the establishment of the state of Israel, an alternative route through Syria (Golan Heights) and Lebanon was selected with an export terminal in Sidon. The Syrian government initially opposed the plan, but ratified Tapline construction in 1949 following a military coup overthrowing democratic rule there.[1] Oil transport through the pipeline started in 1950.

Since the 1967 Six-Day War, the section of the pipeline which runs through the Golan Heights came under Israeli occupation, though the Israelis permitted the pipeline's operation to continue. After years of constant arguing between Saudi Arabia and Syria and Lebanon over transit fees, the emergence of oil supertankers, and pipeline breakdowns, the section of the line beyond Jordan ceased operation in 1976. The remainder of the line between Saudi Arabia and Jordan continued to transport modest amounts of petroleum until 1990 when the Saudis cut off the pipeline in response to Jordan's support of Iraq during the first Gulf War.

Today, the entire line is unfit for oil transport

Lonewolf_50 27th Jun 2017 15:15

Harry
From what looks to be the source you used (Wikipedia article, which is very informative) I note the following:
(1) In early 2005, rehabilitation of the Tapline at an estimated cost of US$100 to US$300 million was one of the strategic options being considered by the Jordanian government to meet oil needs. {Possible problem being the increase in diameter needed to be viable?}
(2) The pipeline was built and operated by the Trans-Arabian Pipeline Company.--snip--The company continued operating with no oil being transported until the end of 2002, when Aramco fully closed the Tapline subsidiary.

With things getting squirrely again, does it argue for or against opening that transfer mode again? Granted, at the moment Syria is intensely unstable, but that route seems to run less in the ISIS sorts of areas and more in the "controllable" areas. (All labels conditional, at best).


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